Secular Totalitarians
Are secularists fundamentalists in their own right? And, are they preparing for a violent, authoritarian suppression of conservative Christianity? The evidence appears to indicate so. The militaristic rhetoric is heating up, and with the recent transfer of Congressional power to the Democrats, along with a soon-to-be-elected Democrat president, we are sure to see the most sustained aggression against conservative Christendom in modern history.
Over the weekend, an unusual commentary was published in the U.K.-based Guardian Unlimited: "Secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians." The rhetoric is a bit over the top, but there is validity to the premise. Author, Tobias Jones, writes:
I encourage you to read the radical rhetoric in Hedges opening chapter. It's most disturbing. It's more disturbing to me personally because I've actually met Chris Hedges twice. First, we did a brief radio debate on NPR, and then I met him a couple days later in NYC at the initial Open Center conference on Dominionism. My impression of Mr. Hedges? A very nice person. Soft-spoken and polite. I was introduced to some of his Princeton students that had accompanied him to the conference, and Chris seemed genuinely interested to meet me.
I expect more objective criticism from someone like Chris Hedges. I'm no fool to believe he and I would ever to see eye to eye -- except on war maybe -- but resorting to threats of criminal prosecution is a clear step away from seeking political solutions. Hedges appears to be discarding democratic procedure in an effort to secure it.
Hedges is guilty of holding the broad brush -- the Achilles Heel of most secular critics. They simply cannot, or refuse to differentiate between the hundreds of millions of Christians that are as diverse politically and ideologically as is American culture. Within a single local church -- especially the mega-church -- you'll have Democrats and Republicans, Blacks and Whites, lower and middle class, educated and non, etc. Some support war. Others do not. Some are politically active, while others hold to a religion isolated to the heart.
They do not desire any sort of religious tyranny. This is not what they seek. Certainly, they would like to see their values represented politically, but that is allowed in a democratic society. Their mistake is in placing too much confidence in their Christian leaders, and not investigating the issues as they should. They are guilty of ignorance in that they fall prey to the incessant stream of propaganda spewing from the war party. But, we do not need Mr. Hedges and his threats to contend with problems inside conservative Christianity. We can take care of our own.
A full review of Hedges book will come later. It would not be proper to treat too much of Hedges' position until the full text is examined. However, his book represents a shift in the rhetoric as the emboldened secularists prepare to use the apparatus of the state to impose their secular tyranny and silence their religious opposition. All the while they accuse us of that very thing. The hypocrisy is staggering to watch.
Over the weekend, an unusual commentary was published in the U.K.-based Guardian Unlimited: "Secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians." The rhetoric is a bit over the top, but there is validity to the premise. Author, Tobias Jones, writes:
There's an aspiring totalitarianism in Britain which is brilliantly disguised. It's disguised because the would-be dictators - and there are many of them - all pretend to be more tolerant than thou. They hide alongside the anti-racists, the anti-homophobes and anti-sexists. But what they are really against is something very different. They - call them secular fundamentalists - are anti-God, and what they really want is the eradication of religion, and all believers, from the face of the earth.I've encountered this very dynamic among the more radicalized elements of the secular Left. They hide behind the facade of tolerance while harboring a Taliban-like intolerance that is fully prepared to use "force" to suppress the so-called "intolerant" conservative Christian. The latest installment in this literary diatribe is the recently published American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by critic Chris Hedges. In the first chapter (published online) he opens with a favorable citation from Karl Popper:
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.Popper is prepared to declare as "criminal" any person that preaches intolerance — at least what he and the secular Left determine as intolerant. And, the criminal act of intolerance should be slated in a category equal to incitement to murder and kidnapping. So, if on a Sunday morning a preach to a congregation that homosexuals must repent of their sin, then I should be arrested and convicted of the same crime as that of Charles Manson, who did not do the actual killing, but only incited others to it. Popper is out of his mind. I hope Mr. Hedges can retain objectivity. He may be inciting his own constituency to desperate measures. Will there be a crime for that?
I encourage you to read the radical rhetoric in Hedges opening chapter. It's most disturbing. It's more disturbing to me personally because I've actually met Chris Hedges twice. First, we did a brief radio debate on NPR, and then I met him a couple days later in NYC at the initial Open Center conference on Dominionism. My impression of Mr. Hedges? A very nice person. Soft-spoken and polite. I was introduced to some of his Princeton students that had accompanied him to the conference, and Chris seemed genuinely interested to meet me.
I expect more objective criticism from someone like Chris Hedges. I'm no fool to believe he and I would ever to see eye to eye -- except on war maybe -- but resorting to threats of criminal prosecution is a clear step away from seeking political solutions. Hedges appears to be discarding democratic procedure in an effort to secure it.
Hedges is guilty of holding the broad brush -- the Achilles Heel of most secular critics. They simply cannot, or refuse to differentiate between the hundreds of millions of Christians that are as diverse politically and ideologically as is American culture. Within a single local church -- especially the mega-church -- you'll have Democrats and Republicans, Blacks and Whites, lower and middle class, educated and non, etc. Some support war. Others do not. Some are politically active, while others hold to a religion isolated to the heart.
They do not desire any sort of religious tyranny. This is not what they seek. Certainly, they would like to see their values represented politically, but that is allowed in a democratic society. Their mistake is in placing too much confidence in their Christian leaders, and not investigating the issues as they should. They are guilty of ignorance in that they fall prey to the incessant stream of propaganda spewing from the war party. But, we do not need Mr. Hedges and his threats to contend with problems inside conservative Christianity. We can take care of our own.
A full review of Hedges book will come later. It would not be proper to treat too much of Hedges' position until the full text is examined. However, his book represents a shift in the rhetoric as the emboldened secularists prepare to use the apparatus of the state to impose their secular tyranny and silence their religious opposition. All the while they accuse us of that very thing. The hypocrisy is staggering to watch.
